9th Guards Army

The 9th Guards Army was a Soviet Red Army field army that existed from December 1944 to 1946. The army consisted of 3 rifle corps, and it replaced the Soviet 7th Army on the front against Finland in Karelia. In February 1945, the army was sent to Hungary to take part in the push into Central Europe, and the army joined the 2nd Ukrainian Front for the Vienna Offensive in early 1945. On 9 March, it was moved to the 3rd Ukrainian Front, fighting in the Vienna Offensive and in the fighting around Szekesfehervar, Lake Balaton, and Velence in Hungary from March to April 1945. On 13 April, the army helped in the capture of Vienna, and it ended the war at Retz and Pisel on the Elbe River after the Prague Offensive.